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Using a graphic of a comparison chart provided by EA/BioWare, I pointed out that very few features were apparently available to players of the free game. Some readers pointed out afterwards that if you read a little closer you’ll find out that some of those features are simply not available at the outset of the game—unless you pay money or subscribe.

In other words, free players will be able to grind their way to the gray icons below, or pay for them.

Here’s the chart, once again. Its flaws are striking:

A Very Angry reader writes, via email:

You incorrectly assumed that because the icons are not highlighted, that they are omitted from free to play. You can sprint at level 15…. Quit providing false information.

How about you do some more thorough research before bashing a game incorrectly. You DO NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR SPRINT. If a player does not pay to play, they just receive sprint at level 15. Take this article down please, everyone here is dumber for reading it.

Perhaps this Very Angry Person(s) should ask the company to take down its anti-informative chart rather than shoot the messenger (though, to be fair, I’m accustomed to taking such shots. They roll off the proverbial skin for the most part.)

Like every other comparison chart out there explaining the difference between various versions of a product, most consumers will automatically assume that the grayed out areas are not available in that particular version. If I’m using AVG Free for an anti-virus program, I don’t assume that the grayed out portions are part of the package—I assume I will need to pay for the Pro version in order to access them. Why I should assume otherwise when it comes to Star Wars: The Old Republic is beyond me.

If Sprint is available at level 15, it should not be grayed out in the Free column. This is misleading on the part of EA/BioWare. I should not be required to do “more thorough research” when I view a basic visual at a company website because this implies that all consumers should be required to do said research, and the entire point of a chart is to make research unnecessary for consumers.

I write video game reviews and I write about video games from a consumer’s perspective quite a lot of the time. One thing that I do is try to view games and advertising through the lens of consumer; as such, when I see a visual cue I try to take it at face value. If BioWare tells me that the ability to Sprint is “grayed out” of the Free column, I am left to assume that it is not part of the Free game. This is their chart, after all, not mine.

Many other consumers will think the same thing. As a blogger, I’m not supposed to find out what EA/BioWare really mean when they post a simple comparison chart. That’s their job.

No matter. That you can Sprint if you pay money, but have to get to level 15 otherwise, is not comforting.

It simply means that I can pay to win, or at least pay to run, among other things. BioWare would have done well to transform the game into something more along the lines of Guild Wars 2. Pay-to-purchase, no subscription, with a cash shop and other cash purchase options on the side. I’m not sure it would have saved the game—just look at how gorgeous Guild Wars 2 looks next to the oddly “retro” graphics of SW:TOR—but it would be better than this half-baked attempt at F2P.

Oh and I’m not bashing the game, either. I love Star Wars, and was really looking forward to this game when it came out. I have no real bone to pick with it, either. To me it’s just another MMORPG utilizing an outdated gameplay model, neither remarkable for its qualities or its flaws.

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Well instead of making a blog on the chart why not move your mouse over the triangle and a pop-up tells you what you can and can’t do.

F2P on SWTOR gives players with no real commitment to the game a chance to try it before they buy it.

And if they don’t buy it what have Bio-Ware lost? nothing really, they have a active subscription player base and in our guild alone several F2P members have gone to buy a subscription.

So before you bounce on the bandwagon of telling us what is and isn’t available tell your viewers to open their eyes and use a site correctly and if that means removing the lovely .png file you got going on for a correct table of content then so be it!

No. I’m not going to instruct readers on how to properly use a chart. The chart should be obvious enough in that regard. Many people will simply look at the chart for five seconds and decide they’ll pass. Pointing out the flaws with the chart is hardly as damaging to EA/BioWare than simply saying people ought to mouse over the icons.

Yes, “put your mouse over the icon and all will be revealed” is a great idea until you consider that A) The screenshot/ copy and paste version here does not have the functionality. And B) its very hard to find the original chart on their website, at least if you are already subscribing.

I spent 10 mins trying to find it to show it to a friend, before I gave up and linked him this article.

I think EA have just discovered why getting rid of half your marketing department is a bad idea.

Although having said that, I’ve been wondering exactly who their marketing and PR departments are really working for. Based on the last 2 years I find it hard to believe that they are working for EA/BW. Surely you don’t employ people who have a track record of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time…?

If you read tons of bad reviews about a movie, per say, would you publish it as well or see it and publish your own thought on it? All I’m saying is that maybe you should at least play a few hours of a gome you intend to write about. If Bioware website was misleading maybe you could’ve wrote a warning article about their misleading information and avoid angry responses thus making your articles more reliable…just saying…

He’s not reviewing the game. He’s criticizing their F2P system (the business side of the game; this is Forbes after all). Those are two very different things. Playing the game just to criticize the F2P system is senseless.

The fact that you would even learn new things about how subscriptions work upon actually playing the game is evidence that his criticisms are well-founded.

MMORPGs are becoming like religion and politics. They are something that is best not discussed in mixed company. The chart is confusing from my point of view as a casual player coming from games like LOTRO. Grey an item out, and I assume it can’t be used unless a full subscription or price is paid. That is the standard way I evaluate software for features when shopping elsewhere, why shouldn’t I think that here?

Truth be told, I think the entire MMORPG genre is facing issues right now, including Guild Wars 2 and WoW. There is a want for these games. But the games are caught in a place where their model is stuck on a traditional PC, built on top of byzantine technical design. They can’t presently offer any kind of link to tablets or smartphones, which would keep players connected to their chosen worlds when the PC isn’t around for use. The financial models were likewise pinned to people sitting on the PC. Where people often call for innovation in MMORPGs, this is one area that could be explored, which could also give the genre greater relevance moving forward.

As it applies here, EA could sell the mobile or tablet apps if they had too. Being able to dispatch my SWTOR crews by way of an app would spur a purchase from this player.

An aside, I think it is telling that I see recent commercials for Lego “Star Wars,” which feature SWTOR’s Darth Malgus and two of the personal starships from the game, but do not have any mention of The Old Republic. This, where once there were promised SWTOR toys and major merchandise due in the stores. I think a lot of things are just being absorbed into the larger pool of Star Wars cannon, toys, and rights, and the game is being isolated.